Raspberry Jam White Chocolate Almond Bars

It's a ridiculously long name for these bar cookies but when you taste them, they will Knock. Your. Socks. Off.  These are my favorite holiday cookie and one of my favorite Things To Do with a Jar of Jam.

This year Lily wanted them for her birthday cake.   Her birthday [which was on the 23rd] is the official kick-off of our holidays.  Our holiday baking starts that day and goes through New Year's Day, which is why I'm posting so many recipes lately.  

I hope you can find a moment to make even a half batch of these.   You'll love them. 

I used some of my own black raspberry jam for these.   You could substitute out a different kind if you like.   I was thinking about how good it would be with cherry jam.  Or apricot jam.  Or a chunky apple jam.   Mmmmm.  [Or marmalade...?]


Raspberry Jam White Chocolate Almond Bars
www.rurification.com

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups butter
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups flour
2 eggs
1 pint red or black raspberry jam [Or cherry jam, or apricot, or chunky apple jam.]
1 cup white chocolate chips [vanilla chips]
4 oz slivered almonds

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine sugar, butter, salt and vanilla.  Cream together.   Add flour one cup at a time and beat until crumbly.   Remove 1 cup of this mixture and set aside.   Add eggs, one at a time to the rest of the mixture and beat well into a dough.   Press the dough evenly into a 13 x 9 pan.   Bake for 25 minutes or until lightly browned.   Remove from oven.

Spread jam evenly over hot crust.  Sprinkle white chocolate chips evenly over the jam.  Sprinkle the almonds evenly on top.    Evenly crumble the rest of the crust mix that you had set aside on top of everything.   Return to oven and bake for another 25 minutes until lightly golden.  Cool completely, then cut into bars. 

Ricotta Jam Pudding

This is another in my collection of fabulous Things to Do With a Jar of Jam.    It's a creamy ricotta pudding, flavored and sweetened with a jar of whatever jam you like.   Then, then, topped off with spoonful of another jam.

And.   It's gluten free!

And!  Only three ingredients.

I know.

I know!



Ricotta Jam Pudding
www.rurification.com

• 30 oz or so ricotta cheese
• 4 eggs
• 12 oz jar of jam [1 1/2 cups] [I used Orange Marmalade.]

Preheat oven to 350.  Beat the eggs well, add cheese and jam.  Mix well.   Pour into greased 8 inch casserole dish.  Cover dish.   Bake about 60 minutes, until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Serve warm with whipped cream, syrup or jam on top. I served it with Blueberry Lime Jam.

Oh. My. Gosh.    It was fabulous!

Notes:  You can fatten this up with a 1/2 cup of half and half or cream.  

The choice of jam to use is entirely up to you.   It would be good with any jam, even runny jam.  [Perhaps especially runny jam.]   Any.  Jam.   Really.  Don't stress out about it; just have fun. 

These jam recipes and 180 more are available in my ebook - A Simple Jar of Jam.   See sidebar for a link to a preview.

Ricotta Almond Pear Jam Tart

A few days ago I gave you a recipe for a savory ricotta tart.  I figured we needed a sweet one to balance out the universe.  Also, I wanted to show you another of my Things to do with a Jar of Jam.

I have a lot of jars of jam.  It's important to eat them with something other than toast.  Not that I'm knocking toast.  I love toast.   Or better yet, fried bread.  Or better yet, just me, the jar and a spoon.   It's been known to happen.

At any rate, sometimes those homey jars of jam like to go out with someone other than Peanut Butter. They like to get dressed up and taken out for a night on the town. Because there's a little tart in every jar of jam. 

This is just such a recipe. It's fast and easy, especially if you use a store bought crust.  You can do the graham cracker crust thing or the regular pie crust thing.  I made a regular pie crust for this one. 

Ricotta Almond Pear Jam Tart
www.rurification.com

• 1 pie crust - either the regular kind or the graham cracker kind.
• 30 oz container of ricotta cheese [or thereabouts]
• 8 oz. can of almond paste
• 1/4 cup sugar [optional]
• 1 can sliced pears, well drained
• 1 jar of jam, 8 oz.  any flavor that you like.  We used Cherry Orange Jam.

Blend the cheese, almond paste and sugar together well.  You can use a food processor or immersion blender or whatever.   The almond paste is kind of thick, so if you're going at this by hand, then take a minute to break it up before you mix it with the cheese.  

Line a tart dish with your pie crust.   Put in the cheese filling.   Arrange the pears in a circle around the top of the filling.   Loosen the jam with a fork so that it's easy to pour - add a bit of juice or water if you need to thin it out.  You can heat it for a bit  if you have to.  Pour the jam over the top of the tart.  Make it pretty.

Bake at 350 for 60 minutes or until golden. Use a lower rack to get a golden bottom. 

Cool completely for a firm texture. 

This is fantastic served room temperature as dessert or cold for breakfast.  Or a snack.   Or a blogging break. 

I'm thinking you can use just about any type of jam on this and it would be A. Maz. Ing.

Eric's Jam Bars

Every jam-maker has a few batches of jam that just never quite set up the way they're supposed to.   Runny jam is a reality that we all have to deal with now and again.  

Eric loves runny jam.   It's usually thicker than syrup and he considers it much easier to bake with than regular jam.   Plus, it's easier to use on waffles with yogurt.  Plus it's good without the waffles on yogurt.   Or ice cream.

And all sorts of other things.

Like this riff on Lemon Bars.   Only they're not Lemon Bars, they're Elaeagnus Orange Ginger Marmalade Bars.  Because that jam never quite firmed up all the way.   A perfect chance to experiment with some new recipes!   And these are amazing. They disappeared fast!

Eric's Jam Squares:  Elaeagnus Orange Ginger Marmalade Bars
www.rurification.com

Crust:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened 
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1  cup all-purpose flour 

 Filling

• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 pint jam  [or 2 jars, 8 oz. each]

 Preheat the oven to 350.

Mix the butter, sugar and flour well.   Eric used a food processor.   Press the crust into the bottom of a 9x9 square pan.  Bake empty crust until golden - 15 minutes or so.

While the crust is in the oven, beat the eggs, flour and jam together well.   When the crust is done, pour the filling in and bake for an additional 20 - 25  minutes.  Keep an eye on it; you don't want it to brown.  

Remove from oven and cool completely.   Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Want the recipe for the Elaeagnus Orange Ginger Marmalade and a whole lot of other terrific jam recipes?   Check out my ebook:  A Simple Jar of Jam  at www.rurification.etsy.com.   You can preview the book by clicking the link on the sidebar.

Jam Filled Cupcakes

This is another one of those terrific Things To Do With a Jar of Jam that I've been collecting.   [Stay tuned - it'll be a book next year!]

Use jam as a cupcake filling.  It couldn't be easier!

Step 1.  Make cupcakes.   You can use a mix.   It'll take 5 minutes to get them in the oven. 

Step 2.  After they're baked and cooled, use a knife to cut off a bit of the top and scoop out some of the insides.   Kids love doing that.  Save the tops, but let the kids eat the insides.

Step 3.  Open a jar of jam and spoon the jam inside the cupcakes.

Step 4.  Replace the tops and frost.    It's easiest to pipe the frosting on because the loose tops tend to wiggle when you're frosting with a knife.   You don't need a fancy piping unit either.   Just put the frosting in a ziplock or sandwich bag and cut one of the bottom corners off.   Pipe the frosting out of the cut end.  

It's a great way to add some easy zing to plain cupcakes.  Try these combinations:

Chocolate cupcakes:  Cherry Jam, Orange Marmalade, Pear Ginger Jam, Raspberry Jam
Spice Cake cupcakes:  Peach Jam, Pear Jam, Apple Maple Jam, Spiced Pear Jam
Cherry cupcakes:  any kind of Berry Jam
Carrot Cake cupcakes:  Orange Marmalade, Pear Ginger Jam

Jammy Oatcakes with Chocolate

Confession:  I kind of got into a groove with these Jammy Oatcakes.   

They're fast.  They're easy. They're fun. They don't involve snow.

Plus, we kept thinking of new combinations. And we had to try every single one of them.  


And they were sooooo good. 

Especially these cherry almond ones.   And then we put some chocolate chips in them and the angels sang and all was right with the world, even with the snow. 


Cherry Almond Chocolate Chip Jammy Oatcakes
www.rurification.com

• 3 cups oatmeal
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup finely chopped almonds
• Handful of dried cherries [optional]
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup cherry jam
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 350.

Melt the butter, jam, milk and vanilla in the microwave until soft.   I heated it for 1 minute in our microwave and it worked fine.   The butter was soft, but not completely melted.  That's fine.

Mix the oats, flour, salt, cherries and almonds in a mixer while the wet stuff is warming.  Don't add the chocolate chips yet.  Then add the wet stuff and mix it all together thoroughly.

Once everything has been mixed up, make sure it's not too warm.  You don't want to melt the chocolate chips when you're mixing them in the dough.   When the dough is cool enough, mix the chocolate chips in quickly.

Use an ice cream scoop to measure the cakes.   Pack the scoop hard and then pop them out onto a cookie sheet. [You don't have to grease the cookie sheet].   Flatten the cakes a bit with a fork.  Mine were 2 " rounds after I flattened them a bit.

Bake for 15 minutes if you want to eat them hot.  [They hold together better for eating warm and they are fabulous for breakfast!]

Bake for 10 minutes if you want to let them cool and eat them later.  [They'll finish drying as they cool].

Makes 20 cakes, 2" rounds.

More Jammy Oatcakes

Remember last week when I showed you the recipe for Jammy Oatcakes?

The ones with orange marmalade and dried cranberries?

Yeah.  Those.  They're wonderful.

I made some more with different jam combinations - because let's face it, it's snowing outside and the gardening that I've had scheduled is just not going to happen for a bit.   And I needed something to do that didn't involve staring wistfully outside at the falling snow.

Even though it's been really pretty.  I'm over the snow.   Over.  It. 

Anyway.   I dug out a jar of my favorite Pear Ginger Jam and some ground ginger and then I added a lot more candied ginger and made these. 

Oatcakes are wonderfully filling and work up quickly for a fast breakfast.   Make them the night before for tomorrow's breakfast on-the-go.  Enjoy!

Pear Ginger Jammy Oatcakes
www.rurification.com

• 3 cups oatmeal
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 cup finely chopped candied ginger.
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup pear ginger jam
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Heat the oven to 350.

Melt the butter, jam, milk and vanilla in the microwave until soft.   I heated it for 1 minute in our microwave and it worked fine.   The butter was soft, but not completely melted.  That's fine.

Mix the oats, flour, salt, ground ginger and candied ginger in a mixer while the wet stuff is warming.    Then add the wet stuff and mix it all together thoroughly.

Use an ice cream scoop to measure the cakes.   Pack the scoop hard and then pop them out onto a cookie sheet. [You don't have to grease the cookie sheet].   Flatten the cakes a bit with a fork.  Mine were 2 " rounds after I flattened them a bit.

Bake for 15 minutes if you want to eat them hot.  [They hold together better for eating warm and they are fabulous for breakfast!]

Bake for 10 minutes if you want to let them cool and eat them later.  [They'll finish drying as they cool].

Makes 20 cakes, 2" rounds.

Jammy Oat Cakes

I love oatcakes.    Dense, full of whole grains, nicely sweet and packed with nuts or fruit.   They're soft, but chewy.  

What's not to love?

Also, they're blonde.   As in not browned.  Which is my favorite thing of all because I am notorious for not waiting until baked goods get brown before I pull them out of the oven.   Blonde bread, blonde rolls, blonde oatcakes.    Perfect.  

I decided we needed to have our own recipe for these using jam for a sweetener instead of sugar.

You get a lot more flavor, with a lot less sugar. 

It's another awesome recipe to add to my Things To Do With A Jar of Jam collection. 

You know it takes some experimentation to get a new recipe just right, so it's a good thing my family likes oatcakes.   We've been eating a lot of them.

A lot of them.   What we sacrifice for our readers.  We've tried a couple of different combinations and they are all delicious.   [More of those coming up.]

You need to try them. 

Here's the recipe for the Orange Marmalade-Cranberry Oatcakes:

Orange Marmalade -Cranberry Jammy Oatcakes
www.rurification.com

• 3 cups oatmeal
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup orange marmalade
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla

Heat the oven to 350.

Melt the butter, marmalade, milk and vanilla in the microwave until soft.   I heated it for 1 minute in our microwave and it worked fine.   The butter was soft, but not completely melted.  That's fine.

Mix the oats, flour, salt and cranberries in a mixer while the wet stuff is warming.    Then add the wet stuff and mix it all together thoroughly.

Use an ice cream scoop to measure the cakes.   Pack the scoop hard and then pop them out onto a cookie sheet. [You don't have to grease the cookie sheet].   Flatten the cakes a bit with a fork.  Mine were 2 " rounds after I flattened them a bit.

Bake for 15 minutes if you want to eat them hot.  [They hold together better for eating warm and they are fabulous for breakfast!]

Bake for 10 minutes if you want to let them cool and eat them later.  [They'll finish drying as they cool].

Enjoy!

Makes 16-18 cakes, 2" rounds.

Want the recipe for this Marmalade and a whole lot of other terrific jam recipes?   Check out my ebook:  A Simple Jar of Jam  at www.rurification.etsy.com.   You can preview the book by clicking the link on the sidebar.  Every purchase helps support this site.  Thank you!

Muffin Jam Cake

Here's another great recipe in our TTDWAJOJ [Things to Do with a Jar of Jam] series.  And it's simple.

Pull out your favorite muffin recipe and make up the batter.

Layer half of the batter in a cake pan.

Spread a jar of jam over it.  [You might have to stir the jam well to thin it out enough to pour/spread easily.] If you have some jam that didn't gel completely, this is a great way to use it.

Spread on the rest of the batter.

Sprinkle with chopped nuts and honey or your favorite coffee cake or fruit crisp topping.

Bake at 350 until done - 35-45 minutes depending on your pan size. 

We made this one with an oatmeal muffin recipe and put cherry vanilla jam in the middle with finely chopped almonds and honey on the top.  Mmmmm.

Blintzes

Need something easy and fabulous for breakfast to celebrate the new year?    You have to try some blintzes! 

Blintzes are a glorified pancake - or crepe, if you will.

We certainly will.   We love these.

Love them, I tell you.   With the white hot intensity of a thousand suns.    My 'I hate breakfast' kid will eat four of them.   FOUR.   This is nothing short of miraculous. 

Here's a great recipe for crepes from allrecipes.com.    Make them very thin so they'll be easy to fold up.    To turn the crepes into blintzes, you fill them with a sweet cheesy mixture and then fold them up and cook them again. 

Blintz Filling
www.rurification.com

• 1 package cream cheese, 8 oz  or 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 Tablespoons powdered sugar
• splash of vanilla
• optional 2 Tablespoons marmalade

Combine all ingredients well.   Put a spoonful of cream filling in a crepe, then fold the sides over or roll them up.   Fold the open ends up toward the center and then gently put the filled crepe back in a skillet to brown a bit more.   Gently turn over and brown the top.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar.   Serve with generous amounts of marmalade or jam.

Tip:  Have two skillets going - one for the crepes and one for the blintzes.   You only need small skillets.  You do not need special pans.  


Want the recipe for Orange Marmalade and a whole lot of other terrific jam recipes?   Check out my ebook:  A Simple Jar of Jam  at www.rurification.etsy.com.   You can preview the book by clicking the link on the sidebar.  Every purchase helps support this site.  Thank you!

Solsberry Bog Puddings

While I was making those individual Sussex Pond Puddings, I thought I'd really put a Hoosier twist to it and make some with other fillings.    They were wonderful!





There's not enough goo in these to call them Pond Puddings, so I think we need to adjust the name.   We considered these names:

• Solsberry Wetland Puddings
• Solsberry Drought Puddings
• Solsberry Marsh Puddings
• Solsberry Bog Puddings
• Solsberry Puddle Puddings

I'm leaning toward Solsberry Bog Puddings.   These puddings are soft and boggy, not runny.  Plus, there's a real bog with a beaver pond next to it a mile or so west of us, so it fits where we live, too.   Vote for your favorite name in the comments!

Pastry [Enough for 3 individual puddings]

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup fine bread crumbs
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter or shortening
• 1/3 cup milk + a Tablespoon or so

Combine the flour, bread crumbs and salt.  Cut in the butter or shortening until fine.   Add milk.  Stir together to form dough.   It will be soft.  

Divide dough into thirds.    Roll each into a round disk about 1/4 inch thick.   Cut out one quarter of the dough to save for the top.   Fit the rest of the dough into a cone shape and press it into the cup or ramekin.  Trim off excess dough and keep it for the top.   Fill the puddings.

Roll or press the remaining dough into circles for the tops of the puddings.   Seal, etc. as described here:  Sussex Pond Puddings - Hoosier Style 

Filling:
For our version of the puddings, all you have to do is choose a fruit, then choose a sweetener.   This is a great way to use up leftover bits of fruit and an even better way to use that jam you've been making all year.  This is definitely one of my favorite TTDWAJOJ.   [Things To Do With A Jar Of Jam].

For the fruit, we used bananas, lemons, peaches from a can, and apples.  You can use any kind of fruit, fresh or canned. 

For the sweet, we used brown sugar, maple syrup, apple-pear maple jam, strawberry rhubarb jam and orange marmalade.  You could also use honey, white sugar, turbinado sugar, agave, etc.   These were really good!   Here are the combinations we used.

Lemon and brown sugar.   This is very close to the traditional Sussex Pond Pudding recipe I told you about before. 1/2 lemon per ramekin.  Three tablespoons brown sugar.   Plus the butter.

Lemon and marmalade.  1/2 lemon per ramekin.   Two generous spoonfuls of marmalade that hadn't jelled right.  Plus the butter.  Loved this one!!  

Banana and brown sugar.   Like Bananas Foster without the booze.  One medium banana sliced per ramekin.  2 Tablespoons brown sugar.  Plus the butter.    To. Die. For.  

Peach and Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam.   I used sliced peaches out of a can to see if it would work.   Oh, it worked!  Let the juice drip off a bit before you put the peaches in the pastry.    You could also slice up a fresh peach, of course.  Two generous spoonfuls of jam.  Plus the butter. 

Apples and maple syrup.   About a quarter of a large apple cut up fit into a ramekin if you piled it in.  Since apples shrink a lot during cooking, I piled high.    Two tablespoons of maple syrup.   This was a huge favorite.

Apples and Apple-Pear Maple Jam.   About a quarter of a large apple cut up.  Two generous spoonfuls of jam.  Plus the butter.   Wonderful!

Don't be afraid to mix and match your fruit and jam.   Just because you're using peaches doesn't mean you need to use a peach jam.   Be bold.

Enjoy! 

Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Over the next few months, I'll be showing you a bunch of things you can do with a jar of jam.   Or glaze.   Or chutney.   Or whatever.

This is an easy recipe for sweet potatoes using the Apple Thyme Sage glaze that I showed you how to make a couple of weeks ago, that even my picky eater liked. 

All you do is peel your sweet potatoes and slice them into rounds.  Spray an oven safe dish and put the sweet potatoes in it.   Pour the glaze on them and stir them up.  Bake and serve.

I cooked these covered at 350 for an hour.   Divine!   

Eric cooks them at 425 covered for a half hour, then uncovers them until they're crispy on the edges.   Divine, divine, divine!

If you use the thicker glaze, like what I showed you in the recipe for Apple Rosemary Mint glaze, then just mix a big spoonful of the jam with a roughly equal amount of water.   It will have clumps.  Ignore them.   Pour over the potatoes and bake.